Tag Archives: agriculture

Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson applauded President Donald Trump for signing Phase One of the Economic and Trade Agreement with China on Wednesday. “I applaud President Trump’s persistence in negotiating new trade deals that will benefit American industries, especially agriculture,” Gipson said in a release. “Agriculture is Mississippi’s [No. 1] industry, and it has been greatly affected by trade disputes with China. Our ...

Becky Gillette 12/12/2019Comments Off on Williams does work around the world promoting soil health and grassfed animal production

By BECKY GILLETTE STARKVILLE — Before a recent interview for this article, Dr. Allen Williams had already answered emails from people in a dozen different countries. “And that happens every day,” said Williams, a sixth-generation farmer who is a partner in one of the largest grassfed protein operations in the country, Joyce Farms Inc., and a founding partner of Soil ...

For the MBJ 11/27/2019Comments Off on State’s public universities prepare workforce for ag industry

According to the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, agriculture remains Mississippi’s number one industry, with almost 35,000 farms covering 10.4 million acres in the state. The 7.72 billion-dollar industry employs 29 percent of the state’s workforce, either directly or indirectly. The Mississippi Small Farm and Agribusiness Center (MSFAC) at Alcorn State University is meeting the managerial and mechanical needs ...

Associated Press 09/30/2019Comments Off on Most of Mississippi corn crop in fair to good condition

Agriculture experts say most of this year’s corn crop in Mississippi is in fair to good condition. The Mississippi State University Extension Service says in a news release that the state’s farmers planted 35% more acres in corn this year compared to 2018. Corn planting was delayed by two to three weeks because of heavy rains during the spring. The ...

Becky Gillette 09/13/2019Comments Off on Savings from solar power chicken houses ‘like giving the farmer a raise’

By BECKY GILLETTE Even small poultry farms with only four chicken houses can have power bills ranging from $20,000 to $25,000 per year. A game changer that can help chicken growers greatly reduce that annual electricity bill is solar panels that can cut those bills by $7,000 to $8,000 per year, said Ryan Ladner, president of Solar South LLC in ...

Associated Press 08/14/2019Comments Off on Farmers use tech to squeeze every drop from Colorado River

GREELEY, Colo. — A drone soared over a blazing hot cornfield in northeastern Colorado on a recent morning, snapping images with an infrared camera to help researchers decide how much water they would give the crops the next day. After a brief, snaking flight above the field, the drone landed and the researchers removed a handful of memory cards. Back ...

Associated Press 08/08/2019Comments Off on UN climate report: Change land use to avoid a hungry future

Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the Earth’s land and the way people use the land is making global warming worse, a new United Nations scientific report says. That creates a vicious cycle which is already making food more expensive, scarcer and less nutritious. “The cycle is accelerating,” said NASA climate scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, a co-author of the report. “The ...

China on Friday threatened retaliation if U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned tariff hikes go ahead, while the renewed acrimony between the two biggest global economies sent stock markets tumbling. China’s government accused Trump of violating his June agreement with President Xi Jinping to revive negotiations aimed at ending a costly fight over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology ambitions. Trump rattled ...

A new exhibit barn has opened at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, years after a fire damaged some buildings. The state agriculture commissioner, Andy Gipson, opened the barn and a maintenance shop Friday at the museum in Jackson. The barn has more than 5,000 square feet (465 square meters) of heavy timber construction exhibit space. Ten antique tractors and ...

Associated Press 06/13/2019Comments Off on Hyde-Smith asks Trump for pumps to ease flooding

Faced with weeks more flooding in a part of Mississippi that’s been underwater since February, one of the state’s U.S. senators on Wednesday asked President Donald Trump to order temporary pumps to the area to begin pumping water over the levee and into the already-swollen Mississippi River. In a letter to Trump , Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith also renewed her ...